CHAPTER FORTY-SIX MOLLY #2
I had no clue what I was doing, and after thirty minutes I was thinking this was all a foolish idea. That’s when I heard a voice clear behind us.
I froze, first thinking it was Ashton. He found us! But no. It was Nurse Sloane.
She was standing in full view of Jess’s guard. Her hands went to her hips, and she cocked her head to the side. “What are you doing?”
“Uh ...”
Pialto jumped out into the hallway and thrust out his arm. “I was thinking this might be cancer. What do you think?” He pointed to one of his moles, and to his credit, it had gotten bigger in the last year. This was not a new conversation or even one in jest. He really was asking her opinion.
She frowned. “What?” She motioned to me. “I’m talking to her. What are you doing here?”
I flattened myself back against the door. “We’re here to look out for Jess.”
“Jess?” Nurse Sloane paled, her face looking haunted for a brief second. “Jess Montell?”
Pialto chanced a look. His shoulders slumped down as he exhaled a deep breath. “He’s not there.”
Oh—what?! I jerked my head out. He wasn’t there, but the other two guards were still outside. Where was this guard?
That churning feeling was back. Something was off. Something was about to happen.
No, no, no.
I started to run toward the oncology clinic.
“Molly! What are you doing?”
“Get back, Nurse Sloane.”
“What?”
I reached for the door, wrenching it open. I could see the other guard who had gone inside with them. He was down the corridor, standing outside a door, and he looked right at me. His eyebrows went up. He reached for his radio.
I looked back. The other two guards were inside. One stayed. The other was coming.
I ignored all reason and raced past the front desk, past the nurses now yelling at me, and sprinted for him. “Your other guy is gone.”
He frowned at me, but his radio was crackling. A voice came out. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it made him stiffen.
“Go. I knew something bad would happen. Something’s wrong.”
He didn’t go. He opened the office door.
Jess and her mom were inside, a female doctor on the other side of the desk.
Jess saw me. “Molly?”
The guard spoke. “Derek is gone from his post. We need to leave.”
“But—” her mom started to protest.
The doctor’s eyebrows were permanently locked together, her gaze darting between everyone.
Jess’s gaze went to me, but she reached for her mom. “Mom, we need to go.”
“No. He probably went to piss—”
“Mom!”
“Mrs.Montell.” I was having none of this. “In the space of a little over a month, I’ve had four guns pointed at me, one directly against my head. My danger radar has been fine tuned. You need to listen to your daughter. If she says you have to go, trust me: you have to go.”
Jess muttered a curse but pulled her mom up. “We have to go. This is no joke.”
“Jess—”
“Go!” Jess yelled, pointing behind her.
The guard had moved back and motioned in the direction opposite to where I’d come from. “We leave that way.”
Jess’s eyebrows dipped down. “What are you talking about?”
“New protocol. A vehicle will be out there waiting for you.”
Jess spared him a look, her frown swinging my way, but she moved her mother in front of her. They hurried past the doctors and nurses, heading straight for the exit. Their guard was behind them, herding them forward, and that’s when it hit me.
He didn’t care about me.
I was still at their doctor’s office. There’d been no order for me to join them. Nothing like that. He was completely focused on Jess and her mom, and that wouldn’t happen. This guy’s boss was Trace, but Ashton was his partner.
A normal guard would include me.
I knew then. I just did. “Hey!”
This guy shouldn’t have forgotten about me. I was just as important as Jess. If Ashton found out he left me behind? The torture he’d do to that guy? Yeah. Something was very, very wrong here. It was this dude.
The guard stopped, looking at me, his frustration evident on his face.
Jess stopped, too, shifting so she could see me better.
I held a hand up, and understanding dawned on her face at the same time it registered on his face. They both clued in that he had fucked up, only paying attention to the “mark.” He cursed, reaching for his weapon, but Jess made her move first.
I took off, sprinting for them.
He tried pulling his gun free of his holster, but Jess was literally on him. She was fighting to yank the gun away from him, but she looked up and saw me barreling toward them, and instead of struggling for the gun, she let it go and grabbed onto him.
She was holding him in place.
He looked at her, confused, but then I was there, and I launched in the air.
I hit him with everything I had in me. Since Jess had held him in place, he went down. The gun flew down the hallway, but fuck this guy.
I was up and scrambling.
He went for the gun. I went for him.
Fuck him. Fuck this. Fuck everyone.
I was totally and completely embracing that darkness in me, because right now, this guy was the same as the guy at the gas station who’d put a gun against my head, the same as the guy who’d pointed a gun at me in my cousin’s apartment, the same as the guys who’d chased me in traffic, and I was not letting them win.
Never.
I would be standing at the end. I declared it. Every damn time.
Knowing that, remembering all of that, I accepted the last part of me that I’d been hiding from, the part that helped connect me to Ashton because he had it too.
I reached out, and slammed my foot down on his arm, then pivoted and delivered the best soccer kick straight to his face. If it’d been a ball, it would’ve sailed halfway down the field. I was sure of it.
I wanted to do it again.
His head snapped back from the force.
“Hey! Stop. Stop right there.”
I twisted around.
Jess had the guy’s gun, but she had it up and pointing at Pialto, who was running for us.
“No!” I reached for her, then froze. I didn’t want to set off her shooting Pialto. “That’s my friend. He works for me.”
Pialto made it to us, and gasped, panting. “We—” Pant. “Have to—” Pant. He tried to point back. “That way. Bad guys.”
“What?” Jess clipped out.
That churning feeling was back in my gut, and it was swirling, snarling, flipping upside down. I felt it rising, almost overpowering me. We had to go, and we had to go now!
I yelled, “That way.” I pointed in the complete opposite direction of anywhere.
“What?” Jess looked my way.
“Move!” I screamed.
“Wha—” But I shot past her, leading the way.
She cursed.
Her mom kept asking what was happening, and I heard, “Here, Mrs.Montell. I got you.”
I looked back. Pialto had Jess’s mom hanging over his shoulder, his face was determined. “Go! Lead the way.”
“Uhhh. Okay!” I jumped, turning and racing anywhere but where they expected us to be.
Jess was right behind me. Pialto and Mrs.Montell after her.
We wove through hallways and offices until I found another exit door. It was small and off to the side, and it looked like where nurses would go for smoke breaks. I took it, shoving it open, and we were running down a small ramp of stairs.
We were somehow between three parking lots and another building.
“Where are we going?” Jess ran next to me.
“I’m winging it.”
“That’s obvious.”
I was looking around and saw an SUV slowly casing the parking lot nearest the hospital. “There. We have to get down.”
Jess looked, saw them, and cursed. “They haven’t seen us yet.” She turned to Pialto. “Get down.”
He did, or tried. Mrs.Montell was slapping his ass, but he was ignoring her.
“Mom, stop.”
“You stop! This guy’s bony shoulder is pressing on my bladder. I’m two seconds from drenching him in piss.”
“Oh, god. No.” Pialto’s face turned a bit green at the idea.
“Mom,” Jess clipped out. “Rein it in, or we’re dead. Get that in your head.”
“You’re—” Mrs.Montell tried to twist around to see her daughter, and she did, but whatever she saw stopped her words.
“It’s like Bear and Leo all over again. This is real shit, Mom. Stop it.”
Her mother’s mouth pressed into a firm line, and she nodded, visibly swallowing at the same time.
Pialto swore in relief but still tried to hunch over. “We have to keep moving. I ran in because two other mofos came in and shot your guards. I was screeching like a banshee, but they didn’t know who I was. They didn’t shoot me. They could’ve, and they will now if we don’t get going .”
Jess swallowed. “We have to get moving.”
“Agh. Agh. Agh.” I didn’t know why I was saying that, but it made me feel better. I kept saying it as we moved forward in the parking lot.
An SUV began to back out of a slot but hit its brakes when the driver saw us.
She had reversed right in front of me. Dr.Nea Sandquist. Her window was between us. She rolled it down, looking at the rest of us. “What are you guys doing?”
“Nea.” Jess moved forward, looking in her vehicle. “We need a ride out of here. Will you help?”
Nea, not Dr.Sandquist, looked at Jess’s gun but said, “Sure. Yeah. Is that your mom?”
“Hi, Dr.Sandquist.” Her mom tried to wave but couldn’t and hit at Pialto’s back instead.
“Great.” Jess reached for the back door and opened it, motioning for Pialto, who was trying to snarl over his back. “Put my mom here.”
He did, saying, “Gladly.”
“Hey!” Her mom held up a closed fist at him.
Jess said, “Mom, you need to lay flat. Okay? Keep hiding so those men don’t see you.”
Her mom nodded, now quiet. But her fist was still in the air. I think it was up more on principle against the situation. Who’d want to be thrown over a bony shoulder and bounced around as they ran for their lives?
Pialto rolled his eyes, returning to my side.
Jess shut the door and went to the back. “Can you open?”
Nea looked at me but didn’t say anything, hitting a button. The back lifted. Jess motioned for Pialto and me. “Come on. You guys hide back here.”
I didn’t move at first, looking back at Nea.
She seemed flustered, but I said quickly, “Thank you.”
“Yeah.” She blinked a few times. “Sure. Yeah.”
“Molly,” Pialto hissed.
I followed him. We both got in, sitting with our backs to the sides and our feet toward each other. Jess shut the door, her entire face just kick-ass and in charge. She went and got in somewhere up front. “Okay, Nea. Drive out the south lot. They weren’t looking for us back there.”
Nea listened, driving off.
Pialto was studying me. “You should look terrified.”
I wasn’t. That was the thing.
I couldn’t explain it. I wasn’t even going to try with him, but something clicked with me. I hadn’t reacted this time. I’d known the consequences. I’d been told not to go, but I had to go.
I’d chosen it this time, and somehow, I felt calm inside.
Or calmer.
I accepted something inside of me, something I’d been fighting, and it was there. It was a part of me. And because I was accepting it, I didn’t feel the switch in me. It was ... I couldn’t say it was gone, but I didn’t feel it.
Huh.